Over the past hundred years or so, many archaeological discoveries have
been found which have caused grave concern to Jewish scholars. All around the
Mediterranean basin (clockwise from Spain, through Southern France, Italy, the
Balkans, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and along the North
African coast to Morocco) archaeologists have found the remains of what appear
to be Jewish symbols from the Tabernacle combined with unmistakable Gentile
themes. These are pagan depictions, designs or inscriptions carved or sketched
on tombs, on dedication stones, or painted on walls of dwellings and even on
the walls of synagogues. These have been found in abundance and have been
catalogued by Professor Erwin R. Goodenough in twelve magnificent volumes
(with an index volume) published between 1953 and 1968. Goodenough is to be
praised for his indefatigable work in collecting this valuable archaeological
evidence which basically originated from the 1st to the 6th
century of our era. Thankfully Professor Jacob Neusner has recently (1988)
brought out an abridged edition of the work. This mass of archaeological
information was something quite unexpected by Jewish scholars. Most were
dismayed at what Goodenough revealed in his remarkable volumes.

What was totally unexpected even by Professor Goodenough (when he was a
young man beginning to study and collect this archaeological evidence) was the
astonishing amount of pagan decorations that were intermingled with typical
ornaments associated with the Tabernacle of Moses such as the seven branched
lamp stand known as the Menorah, the Torah shrine for housing the Mosaic Law
and other items connected, with the ceremonial services of the Tabernacle. The
evidence of pagan intrusion in these artistic and architectural remains shows
without doubt that these illustrated themes (depicting human figures, and
pagan deities alongside items from the Tabernacle) were not manufactured by
artists as mere decorations. The people who created them were incorporating
these symbolic themes into their societal and religious beliefs and they were
displaying them for religious reasons in their most sacred of sites — in
synagogues and burial grounds.

Jewish authorities were astonished at the amount of this archaeological
evidence. To any normal Jewish scholar who is acquainted with the fundamental
teachings of Rabbinic Judaism over the past 2000 years, he would have called
such usage as being the practice of idolatry. The Jewish Scriptures completely
condemn such things and the teachings and written records of Rabbinic Judaism
express an equal abhorrence.

So surprised were Jewish scholars at what the archaeologists were
uncovering that they were (and some still are) in a state of shock at what
they have seen with their own eyes. This shock became especially acute when in
the year 1932 the ruins of a synagogue were found in Syria near the Euphrates
at a place called Dura Europos which had paintings on its walls of Helios the
pagan Sun god, Aphrodite (the pagan Venus) with Moses being taken out of the
ark while three Nymphs look on. Also the heathen god Ares is shown supervising
the Exodus from Egypt with Victories bringing crowns of adornment. But that
did not end the matter. Jewish scholars were further amazed a few years later
with some new archaeological discoveries of synagogues in Galilee in which
were found mosaics of Helios the Sun god and astrological signs with pagan
decorations that could only have been used in paganistic ways by the people
who produced them. These pagan designs could not have been placed in those
synagogues as mere decorations. What was especially shocking about these
discoveries is that they were found in (of all places) Galilee — in the very
heartland of Jewish Palestine where Jewish influence had come to be very
strong after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.

Many Jewish scholars could hardly believe their eyes at what these new
archaeological discoveries were showing. If these pagan depictions had been
made by Jews (and with the full approbation of the Rabbinic authorities), it
showed an unknown side of Judaism which scholars had not realized before. It
meant that the majority of the Jewish people were only giving lip-service to
observing the Mosaic law and that they had in fact gone over to practicing a
form of idolatry that was unheard of in the time of the Second Temple — the
time when Jesus and the apostles were alive. These discoveries made the Jews
from about the fourth to the sixth centuries of our era look like idolaters
and that their religious activities were no different (or only marginally so)
from the generality of people in the Gentile world.

What must be emphasized is the fact that the archaeological remains of
these fourth and sixth centuries synagogues in Galilee (along with similar
burial grounds) were located in the region where Rabbinic Judaism from the
late 2nd century to the early 5th century had its origin
and where it flourished. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in
70 C.E., the Jewish authorities with their Sanhedrin (the Jewish Supreme
Court) moved to the coastal town of Jamnia, west of Jerusalem. The
headquarters of Judaism was located in this area of Jamnia for about 60 years.
But after the war with Hadrian in 135 C.E., the Jewish authorities were
prohibited from residing in this region and they moved to a town named Usha in
Galilee. And later, Rabbi Judah around 200 C.E. finally had the Oral Law
codified (called the Mishnah). This literary endeavor was the catalyst around
which Rabbinic Judaism developed and flourished, and it has been the basis for
Jewish belief until our time today. This important piece of literature was
produced in Galilee. And for the next two and a quarter centuries this is
where the Patriarchate (the headquarters for Rabbinic Judaism) had its
headquarters before it was forbidden by the Roman government to continue. It
was also in this region of Galilee that all Jews in the world reckoned as the
place of their Sanhedrin (the Supreme Court) and the area from which their
religious and most of their social activities were then being governed. It was
a very important religious center for the Jews.

This is a main reason why Jewish scholars were surprised at the
archaeological discoveries of these synagogues in Galilee (along with the one
in Dura Europos). It seemed to many scholars (at first) that this evidence
showed the secret guilt of the Rabbis in allowing pagan idolatrous artifacts
and paintings to exist in the very heartland of Rabbinic Judaism while
supposedly condemning such practices in their literature. It made the Jewish
authorities appear as blatant hypocrites. No wonder modern Jewish scholars
were shocked about these discoveries.

After mature thinking on the matter over the past thirty years, some Jewish
scholars have now tried to convince themselves that these were mere
decorations that Jews were then allowing into their homes, burial grounds and
synagogues. Mere decorations? If so, this would mean (as a modern parallel)
that a person could go to Israel today (which happens to be where the modern
Chief Rabbinates for Israel are resident) and be invited into the home of one
of the Chief Rabbis. Upon entering his home one would see on the walls
pictures or icons of the Madonna and Child (like in Greek Orthodox Churches),
a painting of Jesus being crucified on a Latin cross, and a reproduction of
the Last Supper by Leonardo de Vinci all positioned in prominent places. One
would be amazed (indeed, shocked) to find such things in the home of the Chief
Rabbi of Israel. But more than that, if the Chief Rabbi then invited the
person to go to the main synagogue in Jerusalem and the same "decorations"
would be found there, even greater shock would be expressed. Further amazement
would be forthcoming when one would ask the Chief Rabbi and the authorities at
the synagogue why they allow such scenes (which modern Judaism would consider
idolatry) to exist in the home of the Chief Rabbi and the main synagogue and
their answer would be: "They are so beautiful that we decided to use them
because they are nothing more than mere decorations."

Now someone might say that this analogy is too severe and that it is not
analogous to the pagan designs in the early Galilean synagogues and burial
chambers. But the truth is, the comparison is quite proper and valid. All
people with any sense know that the pagan images and designs in the Dura
Europos synagogue and in those Galilean synagogues were not placed there as
mere decorations. The people who put them there were plainly and simply
practicing a form of idolatry alongside their worship of the God of Israel.
And since there were Jewish people in Galilee at the time, it means that the
Jewish authorities must have allowed those synagogues to be built (along with
burial areas being used by the people).

Without doubt, the Jewish authorities allowed the artists to combine
paganism with biblical teachings. True enough, these synagogues were being
built and burial chambers being used mainly in the last hundred years of the
Patriarchate (the court of the Chief Rabbi of the Jews) when it was in a
much-weakened state of authority. But those synagogues with their pagan themes
were being erected and honored by all who built them. The archaeological
remains are there for all to see, and the Jews let them be built.

Yes, the Jewish authorities did indeed let them be built. But why? In this
book it will be shown that the Jews let them be constructed because they had
nothing to say in the matter. This is because, as we will reveal in this
research study, those particular synagogues were not built by mainline Jews.
They were mainly constructed and used by The People That History Forgot.